'Star Wars Rebels' season 3 episode 18 preview video: All eyes on Chopper

Droids will be the main focus of “Star Wars Rebels” season 3 episode 18. A preview video of the next episode posted online shows how the Empire will make use of Chopper in their designs against the rebellion. The following article contains spoilers.

Officers of the Empire are often too arrogant to pay attention to droids, which led to them losing on many fronts. It is now time for the Rebels to make that same mistake. Chopper may not be as crucial as R2-D2, but he has helped the heroes out on more than one occasion. In the next episode he will need help in turn.

According to the synopsis of the next episode, Chopper and AP-5 (Voice by Stephen Stanton) will infiltrate an Imperial station in order to steal some codes they need. However, things don’t go according to plan. The consequences are borne not only by the droids, but also the crew of Ghost.

The preview video of “Star Wars Rebels” season 3 episode 18 shows the Empire already has a record of Chopper. They have a database of Rebel droids, and the outdated Astromech is unmistakable. Grand Admiral Thrawn (Voice by Lars Mikkelsen) has apparently sent out a memo to all Imperial stations to stay alert about this specific unit, and other members of the Phoenix squadron.

Instead of using blasters on the Rebels, the officer in charge of the station chooses to capture the droid and extract information. Another preview video [see below] shows the Empire has succeeded, but it doesn’t stop there. Chopper has its databank erased, and its new mission is to update its memory with all the information it can get about the rebellion.

Hera (Voice by Vanessa Marshall) usually wipes Chopper’s memory after each mission, to make sure the Empire doesn’t learn everything in case the droid gets captured. But, if the Imperial officer gets hold of all the updated information; the information could prove to be fatal to the entire squad, or worse, the rebellion itself.

AP-5 will try to warn the Rebels about how there is something wrong with Chopper. It is clear that something is wrong when the two droids play “spy games” during their journey. However, Hera has no time to listen to them, and Ezra (Voice by Taylor Gray) even cuts him off in the preview video.

“Star Wars Rebels” season 3 episode 18 may seem like another filler episode, but the plot does tease Thrawn’s plan to take on the Rebels. The villain is slowly, but surely closing in on his enemies, and it will be interesting to see how he plans to target them.